It’s time Iraq’s leaders began to shoulder more responsibility. So why are those who have been making this case longest and strongest standing in their way?

Here’s the situation: American forces in Iraq today operate under the authority of a Chapter 7 U.N. mandate. As long as that mandate is in place, Iraq has “diminished sovereignty,” a status the country’s elected leaders find demeaning -- as well they should.

The mandate expires at the end of the year. At that point, Iraq’s leaders want normal relations with the United States: “Bilateral arrangements agreed to by two sovereign nations,” as Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S., Samir Sumaidaie, recently phrased it.

With that in mind, American diplomats plan to begin talks on a Strategic Framework Agreement to shape the two nations’ security, diplomatic, and economic relationship. Negotiations in pursuit of cooperation: Who could oppose that?

The answer is MoveOn.org – the group that infamously called General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, “General Betray Us” — as well as MoveOn’s followers and fans in Congress.

Their arguments range from the specious to the slanderous. In the latter category, MoveOn charges that the Bush’s goal is to provide a “huge windfall” for “U.S. investors” from Iraq’s oil wealth. Baseless as that obviously is, it helps stir anti-American anger in the Middle East which, for MoveOn, is no doubt a plus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama haven’t gone that far -- but neither have they criticized MoveOn for doing so. Instead they have been railing against what they say are President Bush’s plans to establish “permanent” American bases in Iraq.

But senior administration officials have said repeatedly that whatever bases the U.S. operates in Iraq are not to be permanent -- they will remain only as long as Americans and Iraqis find them mutually beneficial.

For now, at least, it is surely in the American interest to continue the mission Gen. Petreaus and his troops began a year ago this month: confronting al-Qaeda cells and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Among Petraeus’ key insights was that killed, captured and fleeing terrorists can’t stoke civil wars – and, indeed, sectarian violence in Iraq has been dramatically reduced since the “surge” of operations against al-Qaeda and Iran’s proxies began. Continued...